How to Hard Refresh Any Browser on Mobile and PC

ByJim Miller

It’s frustrating when a website takes forever to load or displays outdated information. But instead of switching browsers or clearing data, you can easily solve this problem with a simple hard refresh. In this article, we'll show you how to hard refresh any browser on both mobile and PC.

Why Perform a Hard Refresh

Modern web browsers save copies of websites we visit to deliver faster loading times. This cache data helps browsers save bandwidth and loading time when we revisit the same websites. However, this process can sometimes create problems, such as websites showing an older version of a webpage or not functioning properly.

Performing a hard refresh can help with these issues. It forces the browser to ignore any existing cache data and load the page from scratch.

Steps for Hard Refresh

If you’re on a PC or Mac, here are the keyboard shortcuts you can use to perform a hard refresh on different browsers.

Hard Refresh on Chrome, Firefox, or Edge

  • Windows users can use the shortcut Ctrl+F5 or Ctrl+Shift+R.
  • Chrome or Edge users can also press F12 to open DevTools, right-click on the refresh button, and select “Hard Reload” from the menu.

If you’re on a Mac, press Cmd+Shift+R to perform a hard refresh. Or, press and hold the Shift key and click on the Reload button.

Hard Refresh on Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer users can press Ctrl+F5 to hard reload it. Alternatively, you can press and hold the Ctrl key and click on the Reload button.

Hard Refresh on Safari

Safari doesn’t have a direct shortcut for hard refresh, so you'll need to manually clear the cache and then refresh the webpage.

To empty the cache, press Cmd+Option+E. After that, hold down Shift and click on the Reload button.

Hard Refresh Chrome and Samsung Internet on Android

Unlike PC users, mobile users don't have the luxury of using keyboard shortcuts to hard refresh a web page. To hard refresh a web page on your phone, you'll have to manually clear any cache data associated with the site and reload the page. Here’s how it works on Google Chrome and Samsung Internet for Android.

Chrome

  1. Launch Google Chrome on your phone and tap on the three-dot menu icon to open Settings.
  2. Under Advanced, open Site settings and go to Data stored.
  3. Here, you’ll find a list of websites for which Google Chrome has stored cache data. Tap on the site URL you wish to hard refresh and tap on the Clear & reset button.
  4. Now go ahead and open the website for which you cleared the cache data. Use the three-dot menu icon and tap on the refresh button.

Samsung Internet

  1. Launch the Samsung Internet Browser on your phone. Tap on the three horizontal bars to choose Settings from the list.
  2. Under Advanced, go to Sites and downloads. Next, open Manage Website Data from the menu.
  3. Here, you’ll find a list of all the websites that the browser has stored cache data for. Go to the website URL that you’re facing problems with. Tap on the Delete button in the top right corner and mark the URL for which you intend to delete the cache data. Lastly, tap on the Delete button at the bottom.
  4. Now go ahead and open the website for which you cleared the cache data. It should load up the latest version of the web page now.

Additionally, if you're confused between the Samsung Browser and Chrome, you can check this post on Chrome vs Samsung Internet browser for android devices.

Hard Refresh Safari on iPhone

Similar to Chrome and Samsung Internet on Android, performing a hard refresh on Safari for iPhone also requires you to delete the cache data first.

  1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone and scroll down to find Safari. Next, tap on Advanced.
  2. Now go to Website Data. Here, you’ll find a list of all the websites for which Safari has collected the cache data. Tap on the Edit option in the top right corner.
  3. Lastly, tap on the red button next to the website’s URL to remove its data.

Once removed, you can try visiting the webpage now, and Safari will load a fresh copy of the web page from the server.

Wrap Up: Hard Refresh Any Browser

Performing a hard refresh on any browser is simple and quick. On PC, it saves you from the trouble of deleting cache every time a website loads slowly or shows old web pages. On phones, you might have to go through some extra steps to perform the same.

Remember, a hard refresh can help solve issues with outdated web pages and ensure you're always viewing the latest content.